Thursday, December 26, 2013

I flew back to France on the 31st of August. Upon reaching Nice, I met up with my friends, and we went to the beach and walked around town a bit. Then I spotted this photo opportunity:

I call this photo “Malaysian in France”

All the better that I met up with my friends upon arrival in Nice, because I didn’t actually have a place to stay. I’d contacted Soya before heading back to France, and he said I could stay in his place while I looked for a place of my own. And that I did. For two weeks, before moving to Syahmie’s place for another two weeks (It wasn’t easy looking for a studio/apartment).

That was really cool of them, and I was lucky enough to have stayed in both their places the week that they each decided to do a makan-makan housewarming thingy, so I got to cook some stuff for everyone. I’m sure someone somewhere has photos of the housewarmings. I, unfortunately, don’t, because I had an Alcatel One Touch at that time, which had a really sucky camera.

Now, this does not follow chronological order, but since we’re on the subject of phones, I got a new one! Just recently. Last week, I got myself a Samsung Galaxy Note 3!

Grainy photo courtesy of the Alcatel One Touch

Now, back to my main story. Oh yeah, I found a studio! I moved in on the 28th of September, and I’ve been living here comfortably ever since. It’s more spacious than my previous room in La Résidence Ségurane near Garibaldi (this one’s 19.7 m2 and Ségurane was 15 m2) and the rent comes to same price, once I factor in electricity and the internet connection (both of which were included with the rent at Ségurane which was 550 €). Now I’m paying 490 € for rent, and on top of that I pay 27 € per month for electricity (that’s just a provisional figure, the difference with the actual bill is calculated and dealt with at the end of the year), and 25 € for a 20 Mbps connection with Numéricable.

Oh, and the location is fantastic. I’m in Vieux Nice now, 3 minutes away from the tramway, and 5 minutes from the bus stop at Lycée Massena where I take the 230 to Sophia. And there’s a new park, the Proménade de Paillon which just opened up in October that’s right in between the tramway and Lycée Massena, so it makes my morning walk to the bus quite pleasant. Now, enough descriptions. Photos!

The bed is a sofa-bed. It rolls out into a really really big bed which can comfortably fit 4 people. As you’ve seen from my setup in the Cité Jean Médecin 2 years ago, I really like screens, so I have plenty here as well (Including the Polytech laptop, I have 4, yay!).

Notice the tray table where the keyboard is. That’s a piece of furniture that I purchased a month ago that’s been incredibly useful. It’s so versatile – I can work from bed, I can work on the floor, I can have breakfast (or lunch or dinner) in bed – it’s the best piece of furniture I’ve ever purchased.

Yes, that’s the same purple ottoman that I’ve had since Jean Médecin. That’s not the same purple pillow though, I just got the exact same one.

Finally, notice the guitar. I’ve started learning to play! A lot of the times I’m really busy, but so far I’ve learned to play one song: Stand By Me. And now that’s it’s the holiday, I’m gonna make use of this time to keep improving. Of course, that’s not all I’m doing. I’ve also started learning to beatbox, and since I’ve gotten my Galaxy Note 3, I’ve been drawing. Notice the desktop wallpaper? That’s a frikkin piece of art. My piece of art.

Also, I’ve told myself that I really must write more regularly (as I’ve told myself many times before). Well, today’s a start. I’ve written 5 posts already, including this one. I just hope I’ll continue.

Here’s Syahmie and Afiq from when they came over to my place a couple of days ago. Here you can see the sofa-bed in sofa mode, and the red triangular table that unfolds into a red square table.

And here’s a view of the kitchen :

Syahmie was making sambal udang, and it was really good. He really should come over more often.

Well, that brings us up-to-date with most of the events of 2013. I even managed to casually mention that I’ve got a new Galaxy Note 3.

Oh wait, I’ll just casually mention that we had dinner with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tan Sri Anifah, and I was the emcee :

Of course, the phone and the suit pictured above both cost significant sums of money. But I managed to finance both purchases with a 1000 € loan over 1 year at 0%. A loan I plan to pay off using money I make from teaching tuition and from the remuneration I should, in theory, get when I do my internship this summer.

Oh, which reminds me, I have to start looking for an internship. I’ll get started on that today. Right after I get some sleep. I’ve been writing since 2 am, and it’s now 6.40 am.

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About Me

I really like hearing myself talk, but I like it even more when others hear me talk. Hence this blog. I like chocolates and sweet stuff. I also like making clever written things by arranging words craftily, then reading them over and over again.